Angel of God my guardian dear,
To whom God’s love commits me here,
Ever this day be at my side,
To light and guard, Rule and guide. Amen.
Guardian Angel Icon Watercolor, Gouache and Gold Leaf 8×10 2014
I have been ill for some time now with a concussion but my cousin’s baby shower is coming up and I wanted to paint her something special. I love her very much and I am so happy for her that she gets the privilege to be a mom. I am excited to meet her little baby girl that will be my second cousin.
I have painted small icons before (St. Benedict and St. Francis) but I painted this one quite larger. The smaller ones were on handmade paper from quite some time ago. I know this isn’t a traditionally painted icon but I think it is still pretty.
It took me quite some time to make this since I had to break for the onslaught of headaches (from the concussion) and nausea. If I sit around and do nothing all day long I would go quite mad. I paint when I can as it is relaxing.
I decided to paint an angel for her because I remember a picture I had for quite some time when I was growing up which you can see below. It makes me think of my little brother and I.
Guardian angel, German postcard, 1900
It also makes me think of the times when I was scared as a little one. I had terrible nightmares as a child that I couldn’t even preclude into adulthood. When I was young the only thing that made me feel safe was being “protected” by religion. I had to have a rosary under my pillow and would say some prayers including the guardian angel prayer written above. I would also sometimes say a derivative of the prayer…
Five little angels round my bed. One to the foot and one to the head. One to sing and one to pray, and one to take my sins away. Amen.
The only issue being that I could never quite remember it so I would just ask God to place 5 angels at my bedside. I would say “Please send me 5 angels, 2 at my feet, 2 at my head and one at my heart to hold instead”, which was the only thing I could think of to rhyme with ‘head’ other than ‘dead’. This did not seem like a good option as you can imagine.
I am hoping that this image lovingly painted by a family member will help her feel as safe as I did when I knew there was an angel watching over me.
2014 March 7th – April 3rd
Portraits
Studio 659
1413 119th St, Whiting, IN 46394
Ozymandias ~ A Portrait of Walter White (Breaking Bad)
This is a mixed media piece/ shadow box that was created for this show. A portrait of one of my most favorite anti-heroes. You simply must see it in person to appreciate the depth properly. I have done multiple posts on the progress of this piece. Please check it out!
If you are interested in purchase please contact the gallery at (219) 659-8828
Leaves of Grass Quote gets Walt busted in the end. Is it Karma for having Jesse kill Gale?
While the other side of my box is drying and the glue is curing, I am working on this other side here. I bought a copy of Leaves of Grass and then found the prop online and printed out the same page so that I could copy Gale’s handwriting properly.
I felt that in this box it was important to include this because it was ultimately the undoing of Walter White. He kept this book after he had Jesse kill Gale and stuck it on the back of his toilet for bathroom reading. His D.E.A. agent Brother-in-law, Hank, just ended up needing something to read and found this inscription.
Hank compared the writing in Gale’s notebook to the inscription on Walt’s copy of Leaves of Grass.
He had a copy of Gale’s notebook and ripped out that page and compared the writing. After that, of course many BAD things happen because he knows that his Cancer ridden seemingly good Brother-in-Law Walt is actually a MAJOR player in the production of Meth. He IS Heisenberg!
I felt it was really important to also include part of Gale’s Notebook where Hank actually did the comparison.
Major plot point turn! I bet Walt Whitman never thought his book would be used like that! I haven’t bothered to really research it but I wonder how many people went out and bought a copy of Leaves of Grass after this show aired?
This ‘moth’ is on the image on the infamous barrel of Methylamine
The next design element was a pain in the butt, however the finished product was worth it. I cut out the Methylamine Moth out of cardboard and then covered it in the same metal that I did on the outside and inside of the box. The only difference is that I also used Yellow paint instead of leaving the design element a plain metal. I really wanted it to stand out.
This is pretty important because the guys used this chemical to circumvent their need to buy pseudoephedrine.
My deadline for this box is here and it makes me a little irritated. I wanted to get a cigarette to symbolize ricin, a packet of Stevia, and wanted to work on a few other things but I do not have enough time. With the way I set this box up, these elements can be put in later. Besides, I want to find the perfect packet of Stevia that looks like the same one from the series!
I cannot believe that I am finished with this side of the box now too! I used cork board to attach Gale’s Notebook page to as well as the page from Leaves of Grass. There are also parts of the periodic table of elements on this box. I am happy with the finished product but being an artist I will still struggle with visualizing the other elements I wanted to put in here!
Sky Blue courtesy of some rock sugar candy and colored glass
So I have a little box that fits into the larger one that I had to situate. I decided to put the ‘meth’ into little baggies as things would be distributed anyway into the background. The baggies are stapled to cardboard and then I drilled holes through the box and the cardboard and sewed them in. I also used adhesive as well.
I really feel that the green and blue will really look amazing in the light! I also put in the chemistry bottles and used the adhesive E6000 to glue those down. Seriously that glue scares the crap out of me! I am always concerned about gluing myself to myself.
Completed side!
Man this looks great in this photo but it is so serious in person. The way the light hits it in a photo doesn’t really do it justice. Everything in first person almost radiates.
I am getting excited and I am already planning on another box. My husband and I just finished watching the season/series finale of Dexter. I only had Showtime for the first 2 seasons so I have always been behind. Our friend let us borrow the last 2 seasons and I must say though I am WAY behind and most everyone else had to deal with no Dexter for some time now, I am really sad! There are few shows I really enjoy on television and that is honestly because I always know what is going to happen! I don’t know if anyone here has some suggestions but I love to watch TV while working on art.
My current favorite shows — The Following, Teen Wolf, American Horror Story, Criminal Minds, The Walking Dead, Revolution, Psych, Grimm, Bates Motel, Once Upon a Time (gosh those costumes!) Grey’s Anatomy and the Vampire Diaries.
No, you clearly don’t know who you’re talking to, so let me clue you in. I am not in danger, Skyler. I AM the danger! A guy opens his door and gets shot and you think that of me? No. I am the one who knocks!
Ice Resin was used and the color was achieved by using powdered pigment.
So I am moving right along with this piece and I took some photos of my current processes. In the image above I used some old chemistry equipment that I bought at a garage sale a few years ago just because I knew eventually I would do something awesome with it. I admit, I am a garage sale junkie because I can reuse certain things that people want to get rid of. I also think I like looking through people’s horde and being nosy. It’s quite amazing seeing the things that people accumulate.
I used a product called Ice Resin because I am not that good at getting bubbles out of regular resin. This stuff is great because the bubbles just float up and POP! It also dries fairly fast and you do not have to pour a little layer at a time. It is not too expensive but really it’s cheaper to use for jewelry. A epoxy size squirt tube is about $11.00 and the kit I have which is A LOT more product was about $22.50. I used some pigment powder to color the resin. I used Daniel Smith’s Dry Pigment which runs for about $9.00 unless you buy a kit. I was fortunate that my Husband that had to mix his own oil colors in school ages ago still had these on hand. I don’t think there is a shelf life on these.
Front of the box
The next step was to decide what to do with my shadow box and I went with the idea to make it appear metallic. It actually IS metal by the way! I used strips of aluminum tape, mesh in some areas, and put them all over the box. I textured this using a brush and some other tools in my box. To make it look like there were screws I used a brad punch tool and just pushed it in to the design a little. For the lettering I used scrap booking letters that were thick and would stick up a bit. I also used “diamond” letters for E, O, N, S and cut out letters from a stencil to make I, H, N and C. This was time consuming and a little annoying to make sure all the letters were visible.
Then I covered a little area at a time with black paint and wiped it off so that all the little details showed up. I used more black around the letters to make them stand out. I could have wiped off more to make the box shinier but I like it better dark.
The inside of one half of the box is also covered in this same detail but I put the words “I am the Danger” on the inside. I thought it was fitting to have “I am the one who knocks” on the outside of the box because when someone knocks, someone else opens the door.
I have a long way to go, but here is a little idea of how things are looking on the inside. Noting is attached and I have a LONG way to go with only 6 more days to finish.
2014 February 7th – March 7th
Live Art Show
Studio 659
1413 119th St, Whiting, IN 46394
Arrakis
Watercolor and Ink
Collaboration with Clinton Mason
11×24
My husband and I are currently showing 3 works at Studio 659 in Whiting, Indiana. The image above was a collaboration that is hanging in the gallery that was completed prior to the Live Art Event. The series of images are all names after planets from the book ‘Dune’ by Frank Herbert and we tried to represent them as best we could with abstract art.
Arrakis is the planet that is known as Dune but later called Rakis — it is a desert planet. The circular images were intended to appear as if there were multiple suns to show there would be extreme heat. We were not certain exactly how many suns were actually on this fictional planet but we know there are 3 moons.
Ecaz
Watercolor, Ink and Marker
Live Art with Clinton Mason
11×24
The planet of Ecaz grows a plant called Fogwood which is favored by artists because it can shaped solely by human thought and was nicknamed ‘The Sculptor’s Paradise.” There are small images of plant life and the whole image shows plants unfurling.
Parmentier
Watercolor, Marker and Ink
Live Art with Clinton Mason
8×10
Parmentier is a planet that we could not find much of a description of. The planet appears in the book Dune: The Battle of Corrin, but my husband has not read this book so does not know the description. We actually decided to imagine what the planet might look like due to the only thing we could find on the internet. We read that there was a river so we decided there would be some farm live and a little bit of greenery. You can see the farm field on the lower half of the right hand corner. Since there is life on this planet, in the distance on the horizon line we drew a city.
We had a fun time coming up with these images and they look better in person. If you get a chance go out and see them! If you are interested in purchase please contact the gallery at (219) 659-8828
All Together Now 5×6 on watercolor cold block Watercolor and Ink 2014
Sail the ship, Chop the tree, Skip the rope, Look at me, All together now ~ The Beatles
This was created for Postcard Swap #2 ran by a fellow artist friend . Postcard size art is a little less constraining than the Artist Trading Cards. I have enjoyed both but I honestly like this size better. It gives me more room to drool everywhere.
I don’t even know where I start with these really. I do not have a plan and just let the paint speak to me. I think on these I feel the most crazy at times because I need to let go of the fear of making a mistake. I mean it’s abstract! You can mess up an eyeball if you are going for realism and your pen makes a huge inky splotch mess on the paper. There is no coming back from that.
I do not draw out any of the elements beforehand so I just start with painting and hoping that the design looks interesting. The funny thing is that sometimes I do not like my under painting at all. Then I draw on it and fall in love.
Getting ready for a Breaking Bad mixed media piece
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley
Studio 659 in Whiting, Indiana is calling for Portrait work for their upcoming show. I was not certain if I was going to participate but I have wanted to do a Breaking Bad piece of fan art for some time.
It only seems proper to do a portrait of Walter White/Heisenberg the anti-hero of the show. I am not sure what I will call the finished piece but I am leaning towards “Ozmandias” which I thought was one of the most amazing episodes of the series. Favorites aside it might be called something else later on but for now I will call it that.
I didn’t just want to do a painting so I decided I would work in the media I think I do really well. I am going to build a box and do a mixed media/collage piece. I hope it fits the submission requirements because I am just getting tired of the constraints of the traditional framed, matted and wired work. Granted I LOVE doing that but I need a break from the norm.
This is only step one of the process and I felt it was important to actually start with the portrait. I used watercolor and wanted to give it a sloppy look so I used paint dribbles and bubbles. There… I said it… I used bubbles. Yes, bubbles. I blew bubbles on the picture with a bubble wand and let them sit on the image for a little while and them wiped them off. This process is hit or miss because sometimes you end up with a great texture and other times the bubbles do not do what you want them to and go everywhere but your painting.
I used greens because of the title splash of the show, which appears below. It is a little grungier looking but I need my image to be a little lighter to show better.
Title sequence splash of the show Breaking Bad on AMC
I did the watercolor over the past few days and most of the ink work today. I have been home from my full time job due to a concussion and I am finally starting to feel a little more normal again. I still get nausea and some dizziness. I stressed out earlier today and ended up with a headache. Painting and drawing really helps me relax.
I decided to sign up for a blog because I haven’t done that for some time and I feel it is important to share my creative thought process for those that want to know where I am coming from. I decided to start typing today because though I am feeling more normal I have not really been able to look at a computer screen for more than 15 minutes without feeling crazy. I know I will have to go back to work soon so if they send me back before I am over this ‘bump in the road’ I have to learn to deal with it. I am taking this injury as a good experience because I did a lot of self reflection during my time off.
When life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade. Make life.
Mental Mish-Mash ~ The Art of Leslie Lambert 